TORONTO, July 23 /CNW/ - Suzanne Verkuyl of Toronto and Laura Shiner of Richmond Hill have been playing lottery games together for six years. Today their persistence paid off with a SUPER 7 Jackpot win of $2.5 Million from the July 18, 2008 draw date.

The two friends met through their work for the City of Toronto. After checking the shared ticket at a ticket checker, Shiner called Verkuyl and asked her if she was sitting down. Once she was assured by her friend that she couldn’t fall anywhere, Shiner revealed the life changing news. “We were in shock!” Shiner exclaimed to OLG Prize Centre staff, “In fact, we’re still in shock!” Verkuyl added.

Verkuyl is married to Hugh and has two daughters; and Shiner is married to Jim and has two sons. With the windfall they plan to pay off their mortgages and bills, buy gifts for their families, save for their children’s educations and take some trips.

The winning ticket was purchased at RCSS Aurora located on Bayview Avenue in Aurora.
<< Protecting Lottery Customers OLG has taken significant action toward protecting lottery customers from theft and fraud. To date, the following safeguards have been put in place: - The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is now Ontario’s lottery regulator. Insider and suspicious wins will be investigated by OPP officers assigned to the AGCO. All calls regarding potential fraud or theft are routed directly to Investigations.

- Improved training and procedures for OLG investigations of prize claims made by the general public are now in place.

- It is now mandatory for customers to sign their lottery tickets. If tickets are not signed when validated by a retailer, the retailer will ask the customer to sign them. Retailers cannot validate tickets that are not signed. The front of lottery tickets includes a signature box and a message further reminding customers to sign their tickets. New signature lines are now beginning to appear on INSTANT tickets.

- A news release is issued for every lottery winner over $10,000 and the information is posted on OLG’s website, OLG.ca, for approximately 30 days. For Insider wins, described as people who have a perceived influence over the lottery scheme, and people who sell, redeem and distribute lottery products, or family members (spouse, children, parents, siblings as well as any other relative not described here who resides in the same household) of Insiders, a news release is also distributed and posted on the OLG website for approximately 30 days and payment of the prize is withheld for that 30 day period to give anyone with concerns about the win, an opportunity to come forward.

- Ticket Checkers are available at all lottery terminal retailers for customers to check their own lottery tickets (all on-line games such as LOTTO 6/49 and SUPER 7). At present, customers cannot use the Ticket Checkers to check INSTANT lottery tickets (scratch and win games). We expect to introduce this feature later this year.

- The lottery terminal ‘freezes’ when a winning ticket worth $5,000 or more is validated. The freeze sends a signal to OLG data centre, prompting an OLG representative to immediately call the customer at the retail outlet to confirm the win with the retailer and the customer by telephone.

- Enhancements to the lottery terminal Customer Display Screens include: - Whenever a ticket is checked by a retailer at a lottery terminal, customers will see a video message on the Customer Display Screen and hear a winning or non-winning jingle with a voice-over message. These alerts will tell you whether you have a winning ticket or not.

- Jingles and videos play for a longer time when a winning ticket is validated, and winning/non-winning messages appear in a larger print font.

- A new video, jingle and voice-over message plays for winning tickets worth $5,000 or more along with a display indicating “BIG WINNER”.

- All on-line lottery tickets are branded along the front, left-hand side as winning or non-winning when validated through the terminal.

- OLG has conducted public education campaigns to remind people to sign and check their tickets and to call our hotline if they have any concerns.

- Our Customer Excellence Centre provides service 7 days a week, from 6am-2am.

OLG is a provincial agency responsible for province-wide lottery games and gaming facilities. Since 1975, OLG lotteries, casinos, slots, and resort casinos have generated more than $23 billion for the benefit of the Province of Ontario.

Gaming proceeds support Ontario’s hospitals, amateur sport, recreational and cultural activities, communities, provincial priority programs such as health care and education, and local and provincial charities and non-profit organizations through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 11:56 am and is filed under Online Gambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.